The various ide modules (ide-generic, ide-cdrom, etc.) seem to be
missing in the Wheezy kernel. However they still compile a 486 kernel so
I'm assuming there is some intent to continue to support older hardware.
In my case, I have an old laptop that I could run Squeeze on by
including ide-generic in the /etc/initramfstool/modules file. However
the same thing doesn't work in Wheezy because there is no ide-generic
module.
Googling around, I found one post that suggested it's been superseded by
libata but I can't find that either.
Is 486-era hardware still supported in the newer kernels or is this a
lost cause?